Jacksonville Area A Good Move For Us? (Orlando, Cape Canaveral: boating, state)

[nncdvs]

I was heading to St Augustine....have been there several times, somehow got 'caught' up in Raleigh from NH....so I can empathize with 'love boating', however from one ~ none water member to another.....go there check it out......it is indeed a wonderful place, as well as southside Jacksonville.....it BEATS Raleigh, NC ~ hands down, although the 'economy' may 'claim' to be better in Raleigh....there are No lakes (to speak of) as you know, and whatever water there is consists of an acre lake ....filled with water mocasins (sp), bacteria, slugde, clay and again as you know, the state has closed the only 2 lakes in Raleigh, etc.....do to the above.......if you are into boating, I wouldn't go in any water in NC.........you already know this, I am sure....

Show me the sunshine, ocean, friendly people, dog friendly parks, and I will point you south.....to Jacksonville/St Augustine.....

hopefully that helps with your thoughts..relocating from NC

Nancy

[riveree]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Yes, if possible, we would like to stay on the West side of the river.....that is if there are any nice/safe area's there?! I mean, we are wondering, are all the nice areas of Jax on the East side of the river and people have to cross the river everyday to work in Jax? As far as what area we will be looking for work in, don't know Jax that well to say, other than my wife will be looking for a Senior Accountant type job and I will be looking for a job in Purchasing and/or Inventory Control.
As far as this median age of 33, do we have to worry about making friends with people in OUR age bracket??......we are 59/60 yrs. old. Will that age be a hinderance to us? I mean, obviously, we don't want to hang out with the 30's age bracket (or the 40's as far as that goes). Because of the age, should we reconsider a move to Jax?
Ok, NOW this "age" and "location" thing is really starting to worry my wife. Any suggestions will be VERY appreciated!!

I guess you can think of it this way, there are jobs all over, but there is a high concentration of jobs Downtown and on the Southside.

Obviously, if you live and work on the Southside, there is no bridge to cross.

If you live on the Southside and you work Downtown, you might use the Main Street bridge or the Acosta Bridge which are both pretty small bridges.

It is possible to give yourself a dreadful commute, but without knowing where you'll be working, all I can suggest is to stay as central as you can to Downtown and/or the Southside and look for jobs in those locations (like I said, there's a good chance your job would end up there anyway).

Which side of the river is nicer is debatable, of course, and lucky for you, you came to the right place for a debate! Ha! People are usually partial to one side or the other. Okay, people are definitely partial to one side or the other .

I'm partial to the Southside. I like being close to the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean and the river - the Southside is nestled in between all these. We have more options for shopping and dining and there are some high end options that are not available in other areas. Crime can happen anywhere, but as a general blanket statement, the Southside has long been considered the lower crime region of the city. There are great little neighborhoods sprinkled all over the city and there is no shortage of them on the Southside, so it all comes together for me in this location.

We won't worry about you being 60 if you don't worry about us being 33! Not to worry, you'll find a real mix of ages here. We have plenty of retirees, they're just not the dominant theme in Jax like they can be in other parts of Florida.

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Ok, we don't necessarily crossing bridges over rivers (all the time). We looked at the bridges that cross the river and go into Jax and we both sort of "freaked out" over it. We know they aren't real high, but they are high enough. If we were younger, it wouldn't bother us as much as it does now. What we do see on one website is a fairly WIDE river going by Jax. This, and the median age bracket there (33, that read about from another poster) makes us unsure about Jax now. We do want a safe area to live and we don't want to cross any of those bridges all the time to go somewhere.
Suggestions still wanted. Thanks.

The Saint Johns River does get very wide at parts (2 miles, I think?). The "BIG" bridges are the Buckman Bridge/I295 and the Dames Point Bridge (that's the high one, and I love it !). Some of the other bridges, like the Main Street bridge, are nothing, they're tiny. Compared to major cities like NYC, these bridges are tiny .

That river, by the way, is an American Heritage River and there are only 14 such designated rivers in the US...it's a very special river :

EPA's American Heritage Rivers > American Heritage Designated Rivers (http://www.epa.gov/rivers/98rivers/ - broken link)

St. Johns Riverkeeper

Don't freak out about Jax, there's nothing to freak out about . You will find a nice, safe, pretty place to live here. It's just a big city with a lot of neighborhood options, so you need to take your time and find the neighborhood that suits your needs .

Originally Posted by JagFan27

Hey, I'll be your friend! Then you ocould take me out on the boat!

I've always wanted to take a boat to lunch at the Landing.

There you go - Party on the Loveboat!

[BabyBoomers2]

No matter what city we end up moving to, we won't be living "in" the city/downtown area. As far as the bridges go, some people (young or old) just don't like crossing bridges that are high, low or long. Where we live, we cross over Lake Norman twice on the freeway to get to Wal Mart, but these bridges are "ground level" and no water goes under them (but there is lake water areas on both sides).
Will we pick Jax to move to/live, not sure. But, we are sure glad that we are taking these months to do as much research as we can about a few different areas of FL.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

No matter what city we end up moving to, we won't be living "in" the city/downtown area. As far as the bridges go, some people (young or old) just don't like crossing bridges that are high, low or long. Where we live, we cross over Lake Norman twice on the freeway to get to Wal Mart, but these bridges are "ground level" and no water goes under them (but there is lake water areas on both sides).
Will we pick Jax to move to/live, not sure. But, we are sure glad that we are taking these months to do as much research as we can about a few different areas of FL.

There's a lot of water here and some of it is large body, so it's hard to avoid bridges. I think you're going to find that anywhere in Florida, I'm afraid.

[A.Proffit]

If you don't mind a short drive into town Nassau county is nice. Yulee/Fernandina area has most of the ammenities you would need unless you are wanting to shop in a Mall type setting. Even still the have a few department stores in Fernandina and a Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes & Home Depot in Yulee... all of which are near the Lofton Creek boat ramp.
I would also like to recommend Hilliard. It is near the St. Mary's river which has at least 2 public boat ramps.
I personally love living in Hilliard...very small town. It is about a 40 min drive to Jax. My husband and I take our ski boat out year round.
Moderator cut: ..
For you line of work I'd recommend loking into Winn~Dixie or Publix warehouse. Both are on the Northwest side of Jax.

[FLPL75]

ok loveboating I have to ask
how many folks give you the " look" when you say you love being on a boat in the water but don't like crossing water on a bridge
the reason I ask is because I get the "look" when folks find out I love to scuba dive and have been as deep as 120' but I don't swim and when I go to the beach I never go in past my knees
see lol how many of you have the "look" right now

I am also the type of "bridge issue" person that I have to be in the middle lane when I cross over, but I have found that since I moved here 16 years ago it has gotten better maybe the practice my sister and mil both live on the other side of the St Johns

If you were to look for jobs on the Southside & lived there you could pretty much avoid bridges
there are places you could launch your boat from right before the intercostal

As far as the age thing my hubby & I have friends anywhere from in their 30s to 70

[staywarm2]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

We are an older couple (wife/I) at 60 yrs. old and currently living in an apartment in Huntersville, NC; just north of Charlotte. We know that it can get cold in JAX in the winter, but we still think we would like it better there than here. We just want to pick a descent area to (hopefully) buy a house close to water Any help from folks who live there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

In your Florida search, be SURE to check out the cost of property taxes (high) and homeowners' insurance (expensive and sometimes not available, depending upon where you go in FL).

[BabyBoomers2]

Property taxes and Homeowner's Insurance problems......"Oh My!", but, "Oh Well" There is bad and good about any place people want to live.
By the way, we are still considering Jax, but we would have to live on the west side of the river so we wouldn't have to cross a bridge/bridges all the time.
We will be making a trip to Orlando in Aug. for a Cruise, so we will be able to see if we can handle the summer weather there. So far, we have handled the heat/humidity here in the Charlotte area ok.

[nj2fla]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

We will be making a trip to Orlando in Aug. for a Cruise, so we will be able to see if we can handle the summer weather there. So far, we have handled the heat/humidity here in the Charlotte area ok.

what cruise is from orlando? Orlando is in the middle of the state and can be a lot hotter than JAX because of the lack of the sea breeze

[BabyBoomers2]

Carnaval Cruise Lines to the Bahamas for 4 days. My first Cruise and I'm highly excited.

Originally Posted by nj2fla

what cruise is from orlando? Orlando is in the middle of the state and can be a lot hotter than JAX because of the lack of the sea breeze